Telecoils and Bluetooth

Even the best prescription hearing aids can only pick up clear speech within about 8 feet of the source in quiet environments. Beyond that, especially in noisy situations words become more difficult to understand.

Telecoils have been an available option in prescription hearing aids for many years and are helpful in hearing more clearly in environments with a hearing loop. This short video animation illustrates the power of telecoils to assist the hearing aid wearer in spaces that have a hearing loop.

Check for hearing loop availability in the classroom, meeting rooms, auditoriums, concert halls and even in businesses at counters where transactions take place. It’s flexibility also extends to personal conversations or listening to the TV using assistive listening devices.

Because of the dramatic improvement in word understanding that telecoils can provide to the hearing aid wearer, we strongly recommend purchasing an OTC hearing aid that has a telecoil.

Bluetooth is available in many prescription hearing aids and used typically for streaming between two devices, for example from the user's phone or TV to the user's hearing aids. It can significantly improve word understanding on phone calls, too. However, Bluetooth technology cannot make use of a hearing loop, so it currently does not help in some of the situations where telecoils excel.

For tablet and smartphone users who want to stream content to their hearing aids or who would find it helpful on cellphone calls, we recommend purchasing an OTC hearing aid with Bluetooth, if available. However, for the other situations mentioned above a telecoil would also be required in the hearing aids.